Tellico Normans

We left Guymon, Oklahoma around 9:30 and ambled south into the Texas Panhandle.  Along the way we passed field after field of massive windmills (see video below), the steady southerly winds had them all churning along delivering lots of kilowatts.  We were heading toward Fritch Texas and the Lake Meridith National Wildlife Area and the Ablates National Monument. 

Both were in the same area and we figured to spend the better part of the day exploring them.  After driving 10 miles off the highway to Ablates, we found a hand written sign on the door of the visitors center saying the ranger was on a tour and would return around 1pm!  Since it was 10am, we decided to drive up the road to the monument’s flint quarries and have a look – not to be!  We came to a locked gate and a sign saying that we needed reservations for entry.  So, unless you plan in advance (not noted on maps, guidebook or anywhere else but the National parks website) you can’t get in.  BUMMER!

Lake Meredith launch ramp!

Not to be discouraged, we continued further still into the boonies to visit Lake Meredith and the wildlife area.  The picture of the launch ramp shown on the right tells the tale.  The massive Lake Meredith shown on maps and “Waterfront Lots” brochures is but a shadow of its former self.  Years of drought and increasing water demands by Amarillo and other Texas cities have drained the once massive lake to mud puddle status.  There is supposed to be a bit of lake down near the dam but as far as we could see, just grass and trees but no water anywhere.  For more pictures of this area, click HERE but don’t tow you boat this way expecting to catch a fish – only walking catfish stand a chance!  Oh well, East toward Oklahoma in search of lunch and a “National” something without a closed sign.

Bottom of the gorge.

After leaving the Manitou Cliff Dwellings, we drove to the Royal Gorge just West of Canon City, Colorado.  The park surrounds a large portion of the gorge and includes a bridge, incline railway, cable car and more.  One admission covers all so don’t panic at the price – you get your money’s worth. Check here

 We started our afternoon with a 1000+ foot decent to the bottom of the gorge on the incline railway.  The Arkansas River is at the bottom of the canyon and is only about 50 feet wide there.  The river shares the canyon bottom with a standard gauge railroad track that has quite a history itself including a “War” between the Santa Fe and D&RG for rights to run track there during the Pike’s Peak gold rush. 

View from cable car


Back up the railway and then on to the swaying ride on the cable car almost 1/4 mile above the canyon floor.  The car is the original (comforting?) and it travels about 5mph crossing the canyon in about 5 minutes.  We enjoyed the ride but if you are subject to motion sickness, you probably ought to walk across.

After leaving the cable car, we opted to walk down to the wildlife pens where bison, elk and bighorn sheep are easily viewed. 

Bighorn sheep

This was quite a treat for us as these large animals are difficult to see in the wild.  See more pictures at the photo album link below.  We went on to view the Skycopter and walked back across the bridge to the visitor center where they were closing for the day so we drove to Pueblo to spend the night
tired but pleased with our first day on the road home.

Royal Gorge Photo Album

Colorado Sunset

We spent our first 7 days of this road trip hauling a trailer and pickup truck full of “Stuff” that just wouldn’t fit into my Daughter’s rented moving van.  Then we passed the next 7 days enjoying the scenic wonders and historical sites along the crooked path home.  This trip marked our 15th and 16th weeks away from home this year, encompassed some 4100 miles, 14 days and 13 states.  We have travelled well over 14,000 highway miles so far this year with a couple of months to go.  I’ll date the posts so they will eventually appear in the correct order.

Day 1: Thursday October 14, 2010

We hit the road to North Carolina to see what we had gotten ourselves into – 300 miles and 5 hours later we arrived at Trish’s house, hooked up the trailer and began loading.  Jeff and Karissa came to help load and with everyone doing their best, we were loaded by 5pm.  I never would have believed how much we were able to get into the trailer and the truck bed.  A short trip across town to spend the night with friends Jim and Carolyn Hatchell – the rig held together but felt sort of “Soft” – needed air in the new tires.

We stayed up too late visiting, eating Thai food and just enjoying the company – slept like rocks!

Day 2: Friday

After Jim prepared a great breakfast, we aired up the tires and hit the road for home (it is on the way and the bed is confortable.)  The rig felt much better with the tires properly inflated and we had an uneventful trip back to Loudon.  There was a rather loud sucking sound going up the mountain – just the truck letting us know that if we were going to drag an extra 6000 pounds around, we had to feed it lots of fuel on a regular basis.  Arrived in Loudon about 4pm.

Day 3 & 4: Saturday, Sunday

Left home around 7:30am and arrived in Marion, Illinois at 2pm Central Time.  We hooked up with my aunt Ivolene and began the 2 day family reunion – click the link if you want to see more about it.

Day 5, 6 and 7: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Left Marion about 8am and arrived in Kansas City, Missouri to visit and spend the night with Mary’s Brother Tom and his wife Maxine.  We arrived about 3pm had a great, though short, visit and met their Son Brent.  Tom & Maxine have become friends (not just relatives) and we lamented that they weren’t traveling with us to Colorado.

Tuesday drove across Kansas and stayed the night in Goodland.  Wednesday we arrived at Trish’s new home about noon (Mountain time).  We got unloaded and picked up the kids at school, waited for Will to get home from work and hit the road for Colorado Springs (they didn’t need us hanging around in the way while they were in the process of moving in) – took the sunset picture above – crashed and burned!

The stuff is in Colorado, the trailer is safely back to U-Haul and we slept in Colorado Springs.  The play part of this adventure begins with the next post.